Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Carroll MacNeill for raising this issue. In particular, I thank her for the way in which she has remembered and acknowledged each and every one of those women who, as she rightly said, died in such violent ways in the past number of years. The memories of those women and their families and friends, and the memories of the many other women who have been victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, were at the forefront of all our minds yesterday and over the last 18 months or two years as this strategy was developed and launched.

What is different about this strategy is that we worked in a real spirit of collaboration. My Department worked very closely with Safe Ireland, the National Women's Council of Ireland and every Department across government to make sure we produced a whole-of-government strategy that works very closely with those who are working on the front line with women, men and children day in, day out. Above all, it is to make sure that we as a Government come together to make sure this is a priority for us.

This €363 million strategy is built on the four pillars of the Istanbul Convention, namely, prevention, protection, prosecution and policy co-ordination. Above all, it has set a very ambitious target of zero tolerance for any kind of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence and, indeed, the attitudes that underpin it. I have been asked many times what we mean when we say zero tolerance. It is about changing attitudes and perceptions and how we deal with domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. For all of us, it is about changing hearts and minds. To paint a picture, it is about not accepting violence, abuse, sexual abuse or any type of abuse, financial or otherwise, simply because it happens in a family unit behind closed doors.

It is about all of us. We have all been guilty of laughing off comments or saying it is only a joke, of just walking away from someone when they are pestering us and saying we will leave them to it. It is also about getting back to the basics. At this stage, I think we all agree that we cannot simply say we should not talk to young children about these issues because they would not understand. Younger children are coming into contact with these issues more and more. It is important that we talk to young people from primary school age right up to secondary school and beyond about relationships and the difference between a healthy relationship and an unhealthy one, and as they get older what a healthy sexual relationship should be like.

What we have tried to do in this strategy, under all of the 144 actions, was focus on education and raising awareness of all of these issues and how we can better protect survivors. There is a very clear commitment to double the number of refuge spaces and accommodation that we currently have, which is not enough. We have 141 spaces, which is simply not enough. We are promising in this strategy to double the number and to go beyond what is in the strategy. It is important that we get the structure right and to do that we will work very closely with the sector and ensure the resources that are put in place are specific to the needs of women and children. We must also make sure there are spaces available for men because while this issue predominantly impacts women, it also impacts men.

From a justice point of view, this is about being tough on perpetrators and making sure that if a person commits a crime, there is a penalty and a sentence at the end of process. We must also try to ensure we reform and rehabilitate and also have perpetrator programmes.

The final piece of the puzzle relates to policy co-ordination. The new strategy has a very clear implementation plan, dates, timelines and actions. It allows us to make sure we are doing the work we have said we will do. For the first time, we will put on a statutory footing a single agency that will have sole responsibility for domestic, sexual and gender-based violence. Under its auspices, we will deliver the services, improve standards and bring everyone together to ensure we implement this plan and it ultimately changes the behaviours we are trying to change.

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